A New York state court reinstated NYU’s two-year-old lawsuit against the city over a 2021 zoning provision that limits university expansion in NoHo and SoHo. The lawsuit was initially dismissed after a court argued that the university did not demonstrate clear injuries as a result of the provision.
In its motion to appeal the June 2023 dismissal, NYU argued that while it is not currently affected by the provision, the rezoning’s limits on potential expansions are sufficient reason to file the lawsuit. NYU, which owns or leases seven buildings in the affected neighborhood zones, had said it does not plan to grow in the area — although, it has reiterated the prospect of expansion throughout the yearslong suit.
The provision allows universities like NYU to use their property in the rezoned parts of NoHo and SoHo for administrative work, including faculty offices, but not for classrooms or residence halls without obtaining a zoning variance, or official city approval. The university had claimed this statute violates the Cornell Doctrine, a New York state precedent prohibiting residential districts from excluding educational uses. Due to the case’s dismissal, the court did not determine whether the rezoning provision was constitutional.
“With the challenge to our standing now resolved by the appellate division, we can proceed to the heart of the matter,” NYU spokesperson John Beckman said in a public statement. “The university looks forward to proceeding to defend its rights under the law.”
NYU’s 2022 complaint faced backlash and a motion to intervene from several local groups — including Village Preservation, the Bowery Alliance for Neighbors and the Coalition for Fairness in SoHo and NoHo — that said the zoning provisions support affordable housing in the area and are critical for residents’ quality of living.
Andrew Berman, executive director of Village Preservation, said the group’s advocacy sought to prevent NYU’s residence halls — which are not required to meet standard affordable housing criteria in zoned areas — from “overwhelming” NoHo and SoHo’s residential communities. Berman also referenced a 2022 statement, in which Beckman said the university had no “plans or intentions” for facilities in the rezoned parts of the neighborhoods, but that “it is impossible to predict how things will change.” In an interview with WSN, Berman said that he “certainly did not expect” the lawsuit’s reinstatement after it had been dismissed for over a year.
“About a decade ago, [NYU] made very public commitments that they did not envision the university growing beyond the bounds of what that plan allowed,” Berman said. “Yet here they are, fighting in court in order to overturn those provisions to allow them to expand in SoHo and NoHo.”
In a letter of support filed with the initial lawsuit, NYU’s Senior Director of Campus Planning William Haas said the areas, located to the south and east of Washington Square Park, are among the university’s most viable options for expansion. Haas said the campus is otherwise bound by historic and landmarked areas in the West Village and on Fifth Avenue, many of which are not optimal for university use — unlike the larger complexes in SoHo.
Haas also said there is “little if any validity” to criticism that NYU’s expansion would limit affordable housing accessibility because buildings used for academic offices and classrooms could rarely be converted to residential spaces.
“There’s a lot of very real-world impacts that the university’s unbridled expansion has had,” Berman said. “We still want the university to be an important ingredient in our neighborhood — but just an ingredient.”
Contact Dharma Niles at [email protected].
